The Atlantic

U.S. Enters Its Next Phase in Its Strategy to Pressure Iran

The State Department’s Iran Action Group will mostly focus on “<span>nukes, terrorism, and the detention of American citizens.”</span>
Source: Yuri Gripas / Reuters

Sixty-five years ago this week, a CIA-backed coup toppled Mohammad Mosaddegh, Iran’s democratically elected prime minister. The goal of the coup was to strengthen the hand of the West’s ally Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the creation of a new Iran Action Group to coordinate U.S. policy toward the Islamic Republic in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear accord with Iran.

Brian Hook, whom Pompeo named head of the Iran Action Group, dismissed speculation that the new group’s creation during a week coinciding with the coup anniversary suggested that the United

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